The Negritos of the Philippines comprise approximately twenty-five widely scattered ethnolinguistic groups totaling an estimated fifteen thousand people. They are assumed to be the aboriginal inhabitants of the archipelago. Many of these Negrito groups still live by hunting and gathering, trading wild meat and forest products to the Filipino farmers around them in exchange for rice or corn. They also practice some marginal cultivation.

The traditional religion of all Philippine Negritos is animism. Today, most of them remain animists, although some of their beliefs have been modified by Roman Catholic Christianity.

One salient feature of Negrito religion is its noticeable lack of systematization. Consequently, it has a secondary place in Negrito ideology. Because the animistic beliefs and practices of Philippine Negritos are individualistic and sporadic, they exert less control over the people's daily lives than do the religious systems of...